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Tuesday is the deadline for anyone who wants to be the mayor of Flint to get their nominating petition filed with the city clerk. More than 2 dozen people have expressed an interest in being Flint’s next mayor, including the man who currently holds the office.

Dayne Walling plans to turn in his nominating petitions before Tuesday’s deadline. He’s been mayor since a special election a few years ago.

“I’ve been in the position for less than 2 years at this point. A lot of the work we’ve had to do has been to clean up the old messes.”

This evening, the city is expected to take another, though much smaller step to reduce spending.

Flint’s Local Officers Compensation Committee meets tonight to decide whether to impose a ten percent pay cut for the mayor and city council. The cut would translate into about a ten thousand dollar cut in pay to the mayor and a few thousand dollars each for Flint’s 9 city council members.

The city of Flint has scored a partial victory in its efforts to get its city budget deficit under control. But there is still more work to do. The city of Flint is looking at a projected $17 million budget deficit.

City leaders had asked the state for permission to sell $20 million in bonds to stabilize Flint’s budget. But the state only approved $8 million in bonds. The Flint City Council must still approve the $8 million bond issue.

Flint mayor Dayne Walling says that will help get the city through the current fiscal year. Flint has already laid off dozens of city employees, including police officers.

But Walling says Flint may need to cut $12 million in city spending next year. The mayor says a proposed change in state revenue sharing could force evcen deeper cuts next year.

“We of course need to see where the state finally comes down with state revenue sharing when they’re through with their budget process. Of course the legislature will have its say on the governor’s proposal.”

Flint, like other Michigan cities, stands to lose millions of dollars under the governor’s proposed changes to state revenue sharing.

The Finance and Claims Committe of the State Administrative Board unanimously passed the city of Flint's resolution requesting a $20 million fiscal stabilization bond. The resolution now goes to the full board February 15th.

Flint is facing a multi-million dollar budget deficit this year and other long-term debts. Flint mayor Dayne Walling says the city needs the money to help keep the city afloat financially.

“There is nothing more important for our city right now than the bond. We’ve been carrying a crushing load of past deficits on our shoulders. And we’ve come to the point where the pooled cash is not there to make payroll throughout the entire month of March without an infusion of cash.”

Walling is optimistic state officials will approve their bond request.

“If this, for some reason, were not approved by the State Administrative Board, then we’ll get right back to the table with Treasury and we’ll talk about what our options are."

If the city of Flint can’t get the money it needs, the state may eventually takeover Flint’s finances.

This comes at a time when the city plans to lay off 20 police officers later this week.

Flint recorded its 62nd murder of the year on Monday. That broke Flint’s previous record of 61 murders in a year set back in 1986, when the city of Flint was much larger. There are no suspects in Flint’s 62nd homicide of the year.

A contract dispute between Flint's mayor and the city's public safety unions escalated Tuesday.

Tuesday, the city of Flint sent layoff notices to 20 police officers. The city and the police unions have not been able to agree on major contract concessions to help reduce a projected budget deficit.

Also on Tuesday, Flint firefighters rejected a proposal to slash their current contract by nearly 10 percent. Union president Raul Garcia says Flint firefighters were upset that agreeing the concessions would not protect them from future layoffs.

Flint police officers will not be getting layoff notices this week after all.

50 city workers are expected to lose their jobs to help ease the city’s budget crisis.

But Flint mayor Dayne Walling says there will be no layoff notices sent to city police officers or firefighters this week. He says layoff notices will be sent to Flint public safety employees after the holiday weekend, though contract talks with the city’s police officers continue.

The city of Flint has started sending out layoff notices to city employees.But so far, none of the notices have gone out to those who work in public safety.The city of Flint is wrestling with an estimated 5 million dollar short fall in this year’s city budget. The mayor wants the city’s unions to absorb about half of that deficit with double digit wage and benefit concessions.